relates, that a person famous in that country for his dexterity, used
to divert the King and Court by the extraordinary leaps he took,
having two Umbrellas with long slender handles, fastened to his
girdle. In 1783 M. le Normand demonstrated the utility of the
Parachute; by lifting himself down from the windows of a high house
at Lyons. His idea was that it might be made a sort of fire-escape.

Blanchard was the first person who constructed a Parachute to act as
a safety-guard to the aeronaut in case of any accident. During an
excursion he made from Lille, in 1785, when he traversed, without
stopping, a distance of 300 miles, he let down a Parachute with a
basket fastened to it containing a dog. This he suffered to fall from
a great height, and it reached the ground in safety.

The first Parachute descent from a balloon, however, was made by
Jacques Garnerin, on the 22nd of October, 1797, in the Park of
Monceau. De la Lande, the celebrated astronomer, has furnished a
detailed and highly interesting account of this foolish experiment.

Garnerin resided in London during the short peace of 1802, and made
two ascents with his balloon, in the second of which he let himself
fall, at an amazing height, with a Parachute of 23 feet diameter. He
started from an enclosure near North Audley Street, and descended
after having been seven or eight minutes in the air. After cutting
himself away, he floated over Marylebone and Somers Town, and fell in
a field near St. Pancras Old Church. The oscillation was so great,
that he was thrown out of the Parachute, and narrowly escaped death.
He seemed a good deal frightened, and said that the peril was too
great for endurance. One of the stays of the machine having given
way, his danger was increased. The next person who tried this